Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

1st 100 Days— Portland  
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
16 Sep 2020
🖨️ Print Article
1st 100 Days— Portland 
1st 100 Days— Portland 

I have a friend—some-
time bandmate—Daily…
Whining, wringing his hands.
Distressed and depressed—
anxious and agitated—he
Knows nuclear war and
Armageddon are on the
agenda if Boss Tweet’s
Back—big lies, gas-lighting
another four years…

My meditation 
and its compassion
keep me from screaming,
“Come on out of that
cannabis cloud, read 
writing on other walls—
smell some sub rosa
burgeoning of black

lives—smell the Resistance!”

Instead, I celebrate long stem red roses stretching
Seattle, City of Angels, Tha Town, Minneapolis,
Kenosha, Atlanta, Louisville, Baltimore, Ferguson—
Chicago-Red State teachers’ strikes to The City of Roses!

Instead, I celebrate The City of Roses—
Red roses metastasizing in teargas;
Red roses blooming beneath baton blows—
springing up on Solidarity Street, opening
behind Walls of Moms
Red roses kidnapped in camouflaged fertilizer—
blooming behind walls of ICE; flowering in fascism:
foul compost of a wilting, shriveling empire…
Red roses exploding in FOX-box foot-soldiers’ faces—
silencing lying lawyers;
Red roses burgeoning in blood of John Browns:
Red roses entangled in blue-violent pigmented
thorns—blue symbolizing mystery: How thorns
are being Overcome…

© 2020. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

BAR’s poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner is an accomplished performing artist. You can find much more of his work at http://upsurgejazz.com  .

COMMENTS?

Please join the conversation on Black Agenda Report's Facebook page at http://facebook.com/blackagendareport

Or, you can comment by emailing us at comments@blackagendareport.com

poetry

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Army of Artists (For My Friend Horace Silver)
17 December 2025
Harmony of a hug,Rhythm of a rose,Melody in the mirror
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
A few lines for the Poet Ojenke...
21 May 2025
RIP: Rise In Poetics to Ra
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: Reflections after the June 12th March of Disarmament, Sonia Sanchez, 1982
18 December 2024
“I have come to you tonite not just for the stoppage
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Love My Black Job
11 September 2024
Love my Black Job— Black Student Union Job! Hired at L.A. City College As “The Peoples Poet!”
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
MrJoeSam’s Text Messages
12 June 2024
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR’s poet-in-residence, pays homage to San Francisco’s shipyard artist JoeSam who died peacefully on June 1, 2024, surroun
Raymond Nat Turner
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Dis-honest Broker
01 May 2024
"Dis-honest Broker" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence, recently performed at UpSurge!
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Raymond Nat Turner at the UpSurge Jazz Celebration
03 April 2024
 
Image of Refaat Alareer sitting in a crowd of graduates
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
POEM: If I Must Die, Refaat Alareer, 2023
13 December 2023
Palestinian poet Refaat Alareer, a martyr of zionist state genocidal violence, has left us with a tale of resistance and hope.
Protest for Palestine at the White House
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Trigger Warning
22 November 2023
Trigger Warning Palestine’s the Answer— What was the Question?
Another June 1
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Another June 1
07 June 2023
                                       

More Stories


  • An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti
    Black Alliance for Peace
    An Open Letter to His Excellency, Mr. Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), President of Mexico, on the Renewal of the UN Occupation of Haiti
    13 Jul 2022
    The United Nations occupation of Haiti under MINUSTAH and BINUH brought instability, violence and even cholera to that nation. Signatories of an open letter to Mexico's president Lopez Obrador remind…
  • NATO and Africa
    Djibo Sobukwe
    NATO and Africa
    13 Jul 2022
    Djibo Sobukwe participated in a Canadian Foreign Policy Institute panel, "NATO and Global Empire" on June 30, 2022. These are his remarks on NATO and Africa.
  • BAR Book Forum: Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s Book, “Epistemic Freedom in Africa”
    Roberto Sirvent
    BAR Book Forum: Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni’s Book, “Epistemic Freedom in Africa”
    13 Jul 2022
    This week’s featured author is Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni. Dr. Ndlovu-Gatsheni is Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Vice-Dean: Research, Africa…
  • BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Courtney M. Cox
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum “Sports and Black Struggle”: Interview with Courtney M. Cox
    13 Jul 2022
    This week, we interview Courtney Cox. Dr. Courtney M. Cox is an assistant professor in the Department of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. Her research examines issues…
  • Prison in Plain Sight: Visualizing the Economic Veins That Fuel Our Carceral Reality
    The Mapping Project
    Prison in Plain Sight: Visualizing the Economic Veins That Fuel Our Carceral Reality
    13 Jul 2022
    The prison system links corporate interests, the military industrial complex, and policing into a web of oppression impacting more than 2 million people in this country. The Mapping Project reports…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us